Ezra 3
13 verses
The immediate establishment of the altar and resumption of Temple sacrifices, even before the Temple's reconstruction, reveals the spiritual priorities of the post-exilic community and the theological centrality of proper worship in restoration theology. The people's commitment to the festival cycle (particularly the Feast of Booths) demonstrates covenant obedience and a recognition that maintaining right relationship with God through prescribed worship is foundational to all other renewal efforts. The laying of the Temple's foundation evokes both joy and lamentation, capturing the complex emotions of restoration—gratitude for return and renewed worship opportunities, tempered by the awareness that the new Temple will not equal the glory of Solomon's original structure. This mixed response reflects a deeper theological realism about the post-exilic condition: restoration is real and divinely enabled, yet it also involves diminishment and loss from the pre-exilic ideal. The people's explicit connection of their ritual obedience to the Torah's commands and the precedents established by King David and Solomon shows their commitment to alignment with pre-exilic covenantal practice. The chapter establishes that theological restoration begins not with political independence or military strength but with the restoration of right worship, demonstrating that the primary covenant obligation centers on proper relationship with God rather than earthly power.
VERSES IN THIS CHAPTER
1
And when the seventh month was come, and the children of Israel were in the cities, the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.
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2
Then stood up Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and his brethren the priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and his brethren, and builded the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings thereon, as it is written in the law of Moses the man of God.
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3
And they set the altar upon his bases; for fear was upon them because of the people of those countries: and they offered burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, even burnt offerings morning and evening.
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4
They kept also the feast of tabernacles, as it is written, and offered the daily burnt offerings by number, according to the custom, as the duty of every day required;
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There's something deeply comforting about knowing that the same God who spoke these words is the same yesterday, today, ...
5
And afterward offered the continual burnt offering, both of the new moons, and of all the set feasts of the Lord that were consecrated, and of every one that willingly offered a freewill offering unto the Lord.
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6
From the first day of the seventh month began they to offer burnt offerings unto the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.
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7
They gave money also unto the masons, and to the carpenters; and meat, and drink, and oil, unto them of Zidon, and to them of Tyre, to bring cedar trees from Lebanon to the sea of Joppa, according to the grant that they had of Cyrus king of Persia.
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8
Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the Lord.
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9
Then stood Jeshua with his sons and his brethren, Kadmiel and his sons, the sons of Judah, together, to set forward the workmen in the house of God: the sons of Henadad, with their sons and their brethren the Levites.
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10
And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.
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11
And they sang together by course in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord; because he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
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12
But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy:
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13
So that the people could not discern the noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people: for the people shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off.
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